Book Review: The Loneliness Of Distant Beings; Kate Ling.

After such a long time away from this genre, it's actually really refreshing to be reading a Science Fiction book again. I don't tend to read them much, but when I get into them, I find them so good!

SOURCE: Netgalley
TYPE: E-Read

TITLE: The Loneliness Of Distant Beings
AUTHOR: Kate Ling
SERIES: The Ventura Saga (#1)
PUBLISHER: Little Brown Books For Young Readers
PAGES: 320
GENRE: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Romance

RATING: 3.5/5 Stars

Blurb:
Even though she knows it's impossible, Seren longs to have the sunshine on her skin. It's something she feels she needs to stay sane. But when you're floating through space at thousands of kilometres an hour, sometimes you have to accept there are things you cannot change.

Except that the arrival of Dom in her life changes everything in ways she can barely comprehend. For a while he becomes the Sun for her; and she can't help but stay in his orbit. Being with him flaunts every rule designed to keep their home in order, but to lose him would be like losing herself.

In the end they must decide what is most important: loyalty to the only home they've ever known, or to each other?

What I Liked:

• The world-building in his book held a lot of promise and was probably my favourite aspect of the book. Ling did an awesome job of actually considering what life aboard a space ship might be like, and I liked that there was a lot of advanced tech but the whole thing didn't feel overly complicated and full of unnecessary teleportation devices and lasers and goodness knows what. Also, the climax of the story has some really cool 'flying' speak and gave a good insight into flying a craft. The level of detail is really nice.
• Ling wrote the story itself really well. I liked the narrative despite not being a fan of the MC (I'll get to that later) and enjoyed the solid pacing and the fact that Ling struck such a good balance between giving us the information that was necessary to the story but without info-dumping which is a great danger in Science Fiction. I liked the constant thrills and plot events too so that I never felt bored or uninterested while reading. In that sense, Ling did a cracking job.

What I Disliked:

• As I said, I wasn't a fan of the MC. Seren definitely wasn't the worst POV I've read from, but I found her too selfish, immature and frankly a little bratty even though I agreed with most of what she was saying. In fact, most of the characters I couldn't really get on board with because I either felt like they were a little one-dimensional (Pandora - uber bitch, Captain Kat - pure psycho, Seren's Grandad - cold as ice, Seren's Dad - Mr. Mopey, etc.) or suddenly went against their characterisation big time (Ezra...I liked him in the end and he was definitely horrible to begin with). I only started getting emotionally attached during the last 'scene' where I actually began getting excited for the possibility of a sequel.

Overall Conclusion:

I really liked the premise of this Science Fiction novel and for the most part it was really well done. I loved the world-building, and the plot but felt that some of the characters could have done with a bit more attention. I did like the diversity that Ling included within the book, especially by including a male love interest from a different culture. The final fifth of the book was awesome too: fast-paced, action packed, and more emotional than the rest of the book combined. It gave me hope for a better sequel so I'm actually excited at the prospect of another book.